Something Wrong :s

[Big_eyes]

One of my clown loach has been sulking by himself all morning in the plants. He's come out now and isn't looking too good.
His fin seems to have lost almost all of the black colouring, his tail and back end look like they are lined with cotton wool

No other fish in the tank appear infected and I've never seen anything like this before.

Anybody know what it is? Cause, remedy etc?

 

[Amerce]

Check the water parameters first, don't try to medicate till you have check out all the usual water issues like nitrate, ammonia etc.

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like columnaris.

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

 

[Big_eyes]

That sounds very similar to what this fellow has.

As for water stats, I dropped a sample of at a friends to test on my way out earlier. Recieved a text half hour later saying everything seems fine, slightly higher ammonia and nitrate than usual but nothing serious. Will get proper figures if required but then.........

I think I've found a possible cause which seems to make sense the more I think about it.

I ran out of water dechlorinater when I did my last water change at the weekend and pulled an old bottle out given to me a few months ago (but never used - until now). It hit me earlier and I've just got in and checked straight away. It's 6 years out of date!!

I've noticed a few goings on since that change, my plants have all started dying - so this would make sense. I think.........I hope.

 

[WILDER]

Ammonia and nitrite should be 0.

It could be the bad water quality whats making the plants die.

Signs of toxins is gasping, spinning, darting, excess mucas, gasping, laboured breathing, erratic swimming, turning upside down.

 

[Big_eyes]

Signs of toxins is gasping, spinning, darting, excess mucas, gasping, laboured breathing, erratic swimming, turning upside down.

I haven't noticed any others acting off but this one chap is just sitting at the bottom mostly breathing quite rapidly.

Sorry, ammonia was zero, just a slight amount of nitrate. My mistake.

What can I do to fix this?

 

[WILDER]

You need to treat for columnaris.
Water changes.

Whats your location for meds.

 

[Big_eyes]

Whats your location for meds.

Eh?

I'll give you an update anyhow.

Last night I decided to throw in a dose of new de-chlorinater just to see if it made a difference seeing as the other stuff was out of date. I got up this morning to find that all clown loach are now showing slight signs but the main one noticed yesterday doesn't look anywhere near as bad.

So, today I did a 50% water change and cleaned the filters (in water from the tank) which were quite literally gunked up with poop. This would be from me dragging up all the gravel last week to change to sand. Anyhow, clean filters and water in and things are looking slightly better. All but one CL are as active as normal and signs of 'white furryness' have pretty much gone with only a slight amount on an odd few tails.

I now only have one clown showing no 'fluffyness' but sitting at the bottom floating around like drift wood panting. Odd syptoms on the rest appear to be slight loss of black colouration on top fin (sorry I don't know the proper term/name)and a slight red tinge at the base of said fin.

With regard to treatment I have some Protozin which contains copper sulphate. Would this be suitable, obviously in half doses to treat what's left of this?

Any other help and info is greatly appreciated!

 

[WILDER]

Keep ding the water changes. If its clearing with water changes I would hold off adding meds.
Red patches, red tinge, or red streaking on fins can be bad water quality to septicemia.

For columnaris in the uk myxazin by waterlife and pimafix.

 

[Big_eyes]

Ok I'll give it a go, thanks for the help!

 

[Big_eyes]

Hmmmmmm....good news and bad today.

Clowns are all looking better

But I've lost an Oto and a chain loach with another Oto looking a bit odd.

Will do another water change shortly and sit waiting with crossed fingers and toes, hope nothing else snuffs it. Amazingly I have a single guppy fry in there that has survived the lot and seems to be doing great.

 

[WILDER]

I would add the meds then.
Lost to many fish now.
R.I.P.

 

[Big_eyes]

Oooh ooh! Chain loach has re-appeared looking fine and dodgy looking oto now looks fine

So just one Oto died and everything else seems fine.

Bit worried about adding meds anyway. Will it not get into the algae and plants as well as ruining the 'cycle'?

 

[WILDER]

Columanris can wipe a tank out in aday if its a bad strain, so it nothing to mess around with.If no improvment in the next few days I would suggest using meds.

 

[Big_eyes]

Hmmmmmm........it's been a while and the problem seemed to cure itself......at first! I'm finding that water changes actually appear to be creating this problem now. Everytime I do a water change, at least one starts up with this again. I am medicating, which does seem to cure them pretty quickly but this is getting silly.

I've also noticed when doing a water change on our smallest tank (35 litre) that all the plants start to die off overnight. I'm using aquaplus water treatment to a degree of what I presume is correct but something just isn't right at water change time.

Any ideas?